Brobbins246

Our first cruise (honeymoon, over 30 years ago) the same day we went to Labadee was also formal night, and at that time that really did mean dressing up -- I wore a nice dress, hose, heels, etc, DH had his suit.  However, on Labadee, he DID NOT put on any sunscreen, and ended up with a terrible sunburn, especially on his lower legs.  I ended up having to put cold cloths on his legs and ankles just to bring the swelling down.  That night, he was in agony wearing his suit pants, so as soon as we were done with dinner, he went back to the room to put on "dress shorts", and wore those with his dress shirt, tie & suit jacket to the Midnight Chocolate buffet ?.

A few years back we had quite a few elevator rushers on our ship.   We all know them....the ones who try to rush into the elevator before anyone can get out.  We had a huge guy (largely built and very tall) we seemed to end up in the elevator with quite often and was seated with his family at our MDR table....he was hilarious to talk to and you'd always see him ducking when walking around because his head was not far from the ceilings in some areas.  Anyway, he would stand in the elevator inches behind the door and when we reached a floor and the door opened people rushing in would be met with this towering nearly 7 feet tall/300 pound guy blocking the entire entrance.   Some people bounced off him not looking or just stopped super fast and then looked up in shock.....I still get a laugh out of that.  He kinda reminded me of Herman Munster without the bolts....lol

We had a 10 person table on Mariner. Most of us were middle age but there was one older couple who complained about the service (which was terrific) and the fact that they hadn't been invited to dinner with the Captain and they had on every other cruise. They were real pains as they talked about what experienced cruisers they were and that the ship was like staying in a Days Inn
That night they complained to the Maître D' and were moved. In their place we got a young couple on their honeymoon cruise. They were perfect and we had so much fun. We laughed and told stories.
The next night the waiter said that the older couple wanted back, but we had to agree to asking the young couple to trade. We voted unanimously to stay the way we now were. While we were still eating the old couple came by and said that we should invite them back. We all acted like we didn't remember them at all.

Old thread, but just stumbled across it and had to add a story and reply to @SpeedNoodles ?
My husband & I had this exact thing happen to us in 1998 on our honeymoon cruise on Nordic Empress (now Empress OTS).  We got picked as the newlywed couple competing against two longer married couples, and had to say where the strangest place was we ever "did the deed".  I won't say what our answer was here, but it was pretty shocking, and we got recognized all over the ship for the rest of the cruise with congratulations.  We won the game, we'd just gotten married, and people were apparently impressed with our location answer - I'm not sure what the congratulations were mostly for.  Most of the people also said, "How did you do that?!?"  Not only did we get lots of crazy attention the rest of the cruise, but back then they offered a video for sale at the end of the trip of photos and video clips they took throughout the week.  Our Love and Marriage answer was part of the video along with lots of other good shots of us, so we just had to buy the video.  But it was pretty awkward coming home and showing the video to my new parents-in-law who are very conservative.  We had to distract them through the game show clip so they wouldn't notice that part.  Same thing we did recently with our kids who are 11 and 16 yo, shortly before we took them on their first cruise this year.  We showed them our old cruise video so they could laugh at how young and "90's" we looked, but we had to fast forward through the game show part.  You just can't let your in-laws or kids know all the things you did before you got married!!! ?

Have a plan but stay flexible.  We had all our shows booked in advance, but on our last sea day we realized there was a teen rock wall competition that my 16yo son wanted to do that conflicted with a show.  We ditched the show for some spontaneous fun, and I had to stop myself from feeling like we lost out on our plans.  You just can't do everything and that's ok.  BTW, my son won the rock climb and his joy was worth the change in plans. ?

I mean, I totally can. Ryan and I laugh about this whenever we go to Labadee now. "HEY, WANNA TRY THE ZIP LINE AGAIN?"
SO... second cruise with my at this point soon-to-be in laws. It had already been kind of a comedy of errors, and now we had our first visit to Labadee and it was raining pretty much all day. We had a 10 am zip line time, and until probably 3 in the afternoon we alternated between shopping around and checking back to see if we could get on the zip line. Eventually, there was a break in the rain and we were able to get going. We completed the practice zip line no problem. 
Finally, we make the long steep drive to the top of the zip line. It's HIGH. Full of nerves, I quickly raise my hand when asked who wants to go first, because if kept standing there it would keep getting worse. Ryan and I get strapped in, getting ready to leave the rest of our family behind at the top. 
We get let go and start our decent. For a couple seconds, it's amazing and gorgeous. And then we realize the rain picked up again, and we're getting pelted with sharp little bits of cold rain. And then the WIND picks up. We feel ourselves getting blown sideways, and slowly coming to a stop. All five of us stop very far from the ending platform... in a rain storm with wind and huge waves beneath us. We were later told by our family that the operators were laughing at us before the rest of the crowd made the scary descent back down the muddy hill and in to the beach area. 
Meanwhile, we're still dangling over the water soaking in the rain. Eventually, the tour operators form a plan and they run in to the choppy water (getting pulled under continuously) to throw me a rope and instructing us to keep throwing the end of the rope to the right until everyone is holding it. After we're all holding it, they take the other line back up to the beach and start pulling us to the end platform. 
The very first words from anyone's mouth once our feet touched the ground - "You're getting a full refund!" ... ?
So yeah. That was my first visit to Labadee. 

Old thread, but just stumbled across it and had to add a story and reply to @SpeedNoodles ?
My husband & I had this exact thing happen to us in 1998 on our honeymoon cruise on Nordic Empress (now Empress OTS).  We got picked as the newlywed couple competing against two longer married couples, and had to say where the strangest place was we ever "did the deed".  I won't say what our answer was here, but it was pretty shocking, and we got recognized all over the ship for the rest of the cruise with congratulations.  We won the game, we'd just gotten married, and people were apparently impressed with our location answer - I'm not sure what the congratulations were mostly for.  Most of the people also said, "How did you do that?!?"  Not only did we get lots of crazy attention the rest of the cruise, but back then they offered a video for sale at the end of the trip of photos and video clips they took throughout the week.  Our Love and Marriage answer was part of the video along with lots of other good shots of us, so we just had to buy the video.  But it was pretty awkward coming home and showing the video to my new parents-in-law who are very conservative.  We had to distract them through the game show clip so they wouldn't notice that part.  Same thing we did recently with our kids who are 11 and 16 yo, shortly before we took them on their first cruise this year.  We showed them our old cruise video so they could laugh at how young and "90's" we looked, but we had to fast forward through the game show part.  You just can't let your in-laws or kids know all the things you did before you got married!!! ?

Weekends = less traffic in Miami so that'll help if you disembark on Sat or Sun, especially if you have to drive to FLL.  Also remember, RCI has no control over when port authority clears the ship.  It can take longer for strange reasons sometimes.
Last April, we docked in Miami around 6am, did self disembark and Lyft to FLL for an 11:30 am flight.  I think we arrived around 9am, but we also have TSA Precheck so we weren't too worried about security lines. Only problem we had is our flight got cancelled which I didn't know about until we got to the airport.  Totally should have checked my flight status before high tailing it off the ship that morning. ?

2016 On Freedom of the Seas to the Western Caribbean, Once on board started to take full advantage of the drink pkg & the Miami vice, Muster drill time had arrived, we were all lined up for our drill. Needless to say I started at the front of the line and had worked my way to the back of the line against the wall where I slowly started to slide down the wall and pass out. Totally missed the Muster drill.

Old thread, but just stumbled across it and had to add a story and reply to @SpeedNoodles ?
My husband & I had this exact thing happen to us in 1998 on our honeymoon cruise on Nordic Empress (now Empress OTS).  We got picked as the newlywed couple competing against two longer married couples, and had to say where the strangest place was we ever "did the deed".  I won't say what our answer was here, but it was pretty shocking, and we got recognized all over the ship for the rest of the cruise with congratulations.  We won the game, we'd just gotten married, and people were apparently impressed with our location answer - I'm not sure what the congratulations were mostly for.  Most of the people also said, "How did you do that?!?"  Not only did we get lots of crazy attention the rest of the cruise, but back then they offered a video for sale at the end of the trip of photos and video clips they took throughout the week.  Our Love and Marriage answer was part of the video along with lots of other good shots of us, so we just had to buy the video.  But it was pretty awkward coming home and showing the video to my new parents-in-law who are very conservative.  We had to distract them through the game show clip so they wouldn't notice that part.  Same thing we did recently with our kids who are 11 and 16 yo, shortly before we took them on their first cruise this year.  We showed them our old cruise video so they could laugh at how young and "90's" we looked, but we had to fast forward through the game show part.  You just can't let your in-laws or kids know all the things you did before you got married!!! ?

Love it! Should we ever be on the same sailing we'll have to have a drink and compare notes, lol.

Old thread, but just stumbled across it and had to add a story and reply to @SpeedNoodles ?
My husband & I had this exact thing happen to us in 1998 on our honeymoon cruise on Nordic Empress (now Empress OTS).  We got picked as the newlywed couple competing against two longer married couples, and had to say where the strangest place was we ever "did the deed".  I won't say what our answer was here, but it was pretty shocking, and we got recognized all over the ship for the rest of the cruise with congratulations.  We won the game, we'd just gotten married, and people were apparently impressed with our location answer - I'm not sure what the congratulations were mostly for.  Most of the people also said, "How did you do that?!?"  Not only did we get lots of crazy attention the rest of the cruise, but back then they offered a video for sale at the end of the trip of photos and video clips they took throughout the week.  Our Love and Marriage answer was part of the video along with lots of other good shots of us, so we just had to buy the video.  But it was pretty awkward coming home and showing the video to my new parents-in-law who are very conservative.  We had to distract them through the game show clip so they wouldn't notice that part.  Same thing we did recently with our kids who are 11 and 16 yo, shortly before we took them on their first cruise this year.  We showed them our old cruise video so they could laugh at how young and "90's" we looked, but we had to fast forward through the game show part.  You just can't let your in-laws or kids know all the things you did before you got married!!! ?

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.

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

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

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

Here it is:
 

I listened to an old Podcast about price matching already booked cruises so I did some checking and found the cruise I've already booked for $140 cheaper than what I've booked. I called Royal Caribbean and got them to price match and after 40 minutes I was able to get the new price, but wait, there's more. 
Apparently because I was using my friends crew discount, they needed to cancel my cruise and rebook it, which was fine. There was one thing I didn't think about though. I had already booked my soda + stream package at an AWESOME price of $21AUD per day per person. But since they were canceling my booking I lost that price and had to re-purchase the soda + stream package at $33AUD per day per person... So in the end I basically lost money at this current point in time... I'll check every day for the soda + stream package to drop down in price, but until then my price match was just a price blunder!

Thank you for your service.
I was AF, but my wife had it a lot harder than I ever did.  
People always forget to thank the spouses.
 
 

+1

When I read this, the video in my head played a scene where you get down on one knee, flip open the box, the ring does a triple axle out of the box into the sand, never to be seen by other-than-crabs, again.
<chills and shudder>
???

I really like the running track on Deck 5 at the very back of the ship.  When you're heading east from Florida, the sunsets can be amazing.  There are a few chairs back there and usually not very many people, especially after the embarkation day.  The observation wings on deck 14 forward.  The port side has the glass floor section that might be nice, but it will be windy and probably not private.  Central Park is really nice after dark.  There is an out-of-the-way path covered with a trellis that won't have much traffic.  If you want a little more public, try the Rising Tide bar as it is going up or down.  Or, the Pub, where I bet the entertainer would give you the mike for a minute ? .   Or for something really unexpected, do it during the "Welcome Aboard" picture that they take in the port right before you get onto the ship.  As the photographer tries to get you posed, drop to one knee ? .  Regardless of what you choose, it will be a great moment.  Congratulations.

Yesterday I posted the following post in “Royal Caribbean News and Rumours” and it received a good reaction, but I thought I’d put it here as well because everyone can benefit off this. Judging by numbers, this forum is much more popular than that one, and even if you aren’t interested in Royal Caribbean news, this may help you in choosing the next ship you want to cruise on. I often see posts in here asking about which ships have which venues so here is the answer to those questions! Any questions feel free to ask but I hope that this is able to help you out or answer some question you may have about activities on Royal Caribbean ships. ?
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So, a while ago, while roaming the internet, I stumbled across this awesome list of which activities were on which ships throughout the Royal Caribbean fleet. It was perfect! Maybe I lost it, maybe it was taken down, but I couldn't find it any longer. So I set out to make my own. After going through every deck of every Royal Caribbean ship's deck plans, I noted everything I could find onboard. Bars, dining, entertainment, I listed it all. Here is the result:

View in full screen
 
I find it incredibly useful and I thought that I'd put it here because you all might like to use it too. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think. 
Disclaimers:
This is my own creation and all information used is from https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-ships/deck-plans  (unless otherwise referenced) Therefore, there may be certain inaccuracies because of either certain things missing on the deck plans, or me missing something out If this is the case, please feel free to let me know and I will update it to reflect these. As said, I have not been on all these ships so do not have first hand experience for all these venues and activities, so please do let me know of any errors I may have made. It is quite large so it may take a moment to load, and you will need to zoom out. I intend to update it as new ships debut, or as ships get refurbished/amplified so it is hopefully always an up to date reference point. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy!

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.