JasonL

There will be lots of people packing around luggage on embarkation day until 1pm when the rooms open. Some people don't even use the porters and choose to drag their luggage around themselves until their room is open. If you choose to do this you won't be the only one, but i think it's completely unnecessary. A roller bag is totally normal though

congrats, you're gonna love it!

airplane and cruise are 2 seperate setups. I pack first for the flight as normal, then make a few changes at the hotel before heading to the port. Take my snacks and reading material out and put in swimwear, sunblock, wine, electronics, cruise paperwork and a small toiletries bag and medications. I purchase wine after the flight and my wife buys hair product if we are doing carry on only on the plane. Wifey doesn't use the mystery soap and the 3 or 4 ounces allowed on a plane of hair product isn't close to enough to get her through the week oh... this stuff i keep on the cruise on day 1 is usually done in 1 or 2 backpacks that the wife and I lug on. everything else goes to the porters to be brought to the stateroom in a few hours

So i'm sooooo ready for my Liberty cruise in 2 weeks. Haven't sailed out of Galveston, is there expedited embarkation like there is in some other ports? When I went on Mariner out of Orlando we were able to scan in our passports ahead of time which made embarkation and disembarkation so easy. I already checked in online instead of doing it on my app, is that why I'm not seeing it or is it just available out of Galveston? Thanks yall BTW- anyone gonna be on Liberty 2-9-20?

ditto to the above and wine. gotta lug my wine around for the first couple hours of the cruise unfortunately

Personally I always pay the gratuities far before the cruise to space out the cost of a cruise. I just tell my travel agent to charge it to my card I have on file(then I immediately pay off that charge of course, please don't charge up a bunch of debt because you want vacation you can't afford). Spread out as many expenses as you can before your cruise. I also really don't like the idea of handing out tips in person at the end of the cruise. Like it or not, it's part of these workers wages and they really depend on that money. If you hand out tips at the end you are probably missing someone that depends on those tips. Instead I will give an extra tip to anyone that i thought was outstanding along the way. That's just my opinion

Now that my oldest child is going to be 13 on our Oasis 2021 we are switching to 2 rooms with connecting door. We normally do the oceanview ultra spacioius and to keep the price similar on 2 rooms we have to go down to 2 inside rooms. Usually.... depends on the sailings though. My Oasis in 2021 on Thanksgiving week was a great time to make this switch because I was actually able to get 2 balcony rooms with connecting door for $500 more total than getting 1 Balcony Ultra spacious. Bonus- Now i can justify getting myself the drink package, since I will be the only Adult booked in one of the rooms

we have done a few cruised with our family of 5 in one room. With a young family it works good. You are looking for the Ultra Spacious rooms. Some ships have these rooms in Inside,Oceanview, & Balcony. Others only have them in Oceanview. When i am price shopping i just put in 4 guests, then go into the pricing summary and take the expenses of guest 4 and add that number 2 more times to get your approximate total price. Figure out what works best for you then use a travel agent to get an exact price and have them make the booking

Well this is exciting. Gives me a closer option for my cruisin addiction. I think a 4 day cruise will go nicely with 3 days at disney/universal

This is slightly off topic ...but.... I am sailing Liberty out of Galveston in February and I booked a rental car for 8 days. My hotel has free cruise parking. The convenience of the rental car for my family of 5 is totally worth it. Plus I don't think it's actually going to be much more than if we were to pay for transportation($328 for the 8 days). We went through costco, there isn't any extra cost for miles and you get an extra driver for free as well. Plus you don't have to pay until you pick up the car and I keep checking back to see if the price dropped.

The wife and I got a good deal on our first JS on Mariner. Call me crazy, but I thought it was an unnecessary amount of space for the 2 of us. If we had the kids with us, that would be totally worth it though

The best drink on a Royal cruise is the first one! Vacation is starting as soon as you get onboard and get your first drink!

Been wanting to book a thanksgiving cruise. Was about to book Oasis Nov 21 2021 when i heard about the Group Cruise that same week on Harmony. I looked into it, but I just couldn't justify the extra $2000 it would cost my family of 5. That said...I'll be on Oasis Nov 21st, 2021

Over planning may be unnecessary, but I think the excitement leading up to the cruise can be just as much fun

I love the big ships, but I'm kind of a kid. I like lots of fun new things to do at sea. I will only take my kids on an amped ship, but i prefer Oasis class. When the wife and I are cruising without kids we will do any ship especially if we are targeting ports, but I still prefer amped or Oasis. I probably represent Royal's target cruiser at this point

My usual cruise time of year is February. I live in Washington state and I like to escape the wet cold winter here. Coming from a cold winter climate, the weather is going to feel perfect. Being used to the cold I usually do shorts and t-shirt, but it is wise to bring a pair of pants and a light sweatshirt/jacket just in case

A good thing to pay off at this stage is the pre-paid gratuities! You can do it through your travel agent, or directly with royal if you didn't book with an agent.

Biggest mistake wasn't in my first cruises though, it was with my first cruise with kids. We knew what cruising was for us and we took those expectations into our first cruise with our very young kids. We love cruising with the kids now, but the first one we didn't enjoy because we didn't get our minds right that the experience is different with kids. #don'tfeelguiltydumpingyourkidsatadventureoceanasmuchaspossible ?

Didn't use to pre-purchase as much as possible before the cruise. Also didn't pre-book activities. Of course I didn't have any money for extras back then, but still it's a very common rookie mistake

thanks for the post, love the side by side @CGTLH

occupancy is pretty much always full on every ship these days. I am looking at thanksgiving sailings also and they seem to be pretty reasonably priced even on the oasis class

i was able to pre book in cruise planner on Mariner. When you do go to your reservation, show up 10 minutes early. We stressed out our group because we showed up just before our time

Sold. I like the Oasis class, but any ship is a good start!

Be friendly with all the crew. Ask them where they like to go in port, they often know some great spots that are off the radar

That's a big one. We are the same way, we don't have fancy things, we like vacationing. My brother calls me Jay-cation ?