JasonL

Don't be sorry. In case you haven't noticed, this message board is for people suffering from "notcurrentlyonacruiseitis". Any and all chances to talk, think & dream about another cruise for ourselves or others helps us cope with our very serious disease.

Don't be sorry. In case you haven't noticed, this message board is for people suffering from "notcurrentlyonacruiseitis". Any and all chances to talk, think & dream about another cruise for ourselves or others helps us cope with our very serious disease.

Don't be sorry. In case you haven't noticed, this message board is for people suffering from "notcurrentlyonacruiseitis". Any and all chances to talk, think & dream about another cruise for ourselves or others helps us cope with our very serious disease.

I'm a chronic micro manager. Last cruise I was almost afraid to make my MTD dinner reservation before hand, because I didn't know exactely what shows I would be seeing and whatnot. This is silly, don't be like me. Just make your best guess and book all your MTD reservations as early as possible. Then simply call and change them as needed while you are on the cruise, this gives you the best shot at having a dining time that suits you.

Hey yall
I'm Jason, I'm married to an angel named Melody and we have 2 girls (11 & 6) and 1 boy (2).  My kids are starting to make cruising requests already, I think I'm creating monsters. We live in Washington state about 45 minutes south of Seattle. If I lived closer to the Caribbean I would cruise more, there is only so many times you can cruise Alaska or Victoria/Vancouver. I've started hanging around this site more and more in the last few months as I become more and more addicted to RCL cruises. I might even be addicted to the idea of the possibility of perhaps cruising. I've successfully binged about 200 podcasts and look forward to cruising with some of you all someday on a group cruise. I also finally pulled to trigger on becoming an Insider as Matt surely deserves the support! 
God Bless and Happy Cruising

I'm in; least that I can do since the first thing I do every morning is check the RCblog.  Cruising is addictive!!

AH! That one is super important - thanks for bringing that up. 
You have door hangers in your room that you can fill out with your complementary continental breakfast request (or just pot of coffee) to have delivered with a time marked for what time you'd like it to arrive. They'll call your room before they bring it, so I use it as an "alarm clock" often. 
Edit for clarity - the door hangers are complementary and don't have the room service fee applied as long as you stick to the continental breakfast options, which are marked and coffee is included in that section. 

Having a T-Rex would be kind of cool.  Messy though (when it gets around meat/people).

Nope, not just you.  That is the beauty of them.  And keeping those of us stuck in dry dock sane. ?

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I just wanted to note on this thread that we stayed in the 1K (as many of you know) on Indy recently.  It was 8200 and has a distinct configuration.  Photos can be found in my Indy blog (link in signature). 
What I wanted to note here was that we found there to be considerable motion in this room.  Your mileage may vary, and we did run into some high winds and rougher seas, however, there was far more motion here in this cabin than other parts of the ship.  So if anyone is thinking of this cabin, it's a good thing to keep in mind. 
Also, it was very noisy (ship mechanics is not my strong suit so I cannot explain why) every time the ship docked and departed.  The whole room would also vibrate and shake each time.  We usually stay mid ship.  On Mariner we stayed forward but on Deck 11.  We have never encountered these issues in any of our other rooms.  The space in these rooms is great, but those are some of the disadvantages.  It's also a long walk to certain venues.

All I know is that before final payment is due, my TA emails me and asks, "Is this on the same card?" Boom. Easy.

Sounds like they are bringing in some of the really large items that will require the pier to dock and unload.  Assuming they have to close it for a day to do so then it makes some sense that they are cancelling the smallest ship so as to affect the smallest number of passengers.
Not that I wouldn't be as angry as anybody at this.  However I will give them credit that they did this before the final payment date.

We have solved the hard mattress issue two ways. 
First -  we roll up a 3" mattress topper as tight as we can get it and tie it together.  Stuff it in a suitcase and fill the rest of that suitcase with whatever else we are taking.  This requires 2 large suitcases for most trips.  BUT - the comfort of the softer mattress is worth it.  Just remember to take it off of the bed when you come home.
Second - if we are flying and can only check one bag - we ask the room steward for 10 extra pillows.  We put them under the sheet and remake the bed.  We have a "pillow-top" mattress literally!!!  
 

Those "some" are plain wrong. Like it or not, gratuities are part of the cost of the cruise.  You can argue the merits of this system, but until it changes you are obliged to pay gratuity for every guest, including kids. Period.

Sadly I know someone going on her first cruise and has already received advice from someone on how to remove the tips and she will. The person who told her has claimed to be on 20+ cruises and never tips. They just give a few people a couple of bucks at the end. 
I have a larger family also and all the tips sting but if I cannot afford them, I can't afford the cruise. 

I have 4 kids and fully pay the auto gratuities for everyone.  In fact, we leave our room steward an extra tip after dealing with my slobs (aka kids) room for a week.
Your kids will eat 3 meals a day, sleep in a bed and make as much of a mess as any adult if not more.  My .02 is to leave the auto gratuities as they are and if someone demonstrates great service then you can leave an extra tip.   

Not me.  I'm looking at the waterpark cabanas though as that includes the waterpark admission so it almost makes it a good deal.

I paid $247 for a regular cabana for my trip to Coco Cay this weekend (fingers crossed we actually make it based on the marine forecast), and even that feels like a splurge although worth it because there are six adults and a 6 year old. That massive price tag for the over water ones is insane. 

I think if you are expecting her to get back within 24 hours during a holiday week while she is on vacation, then you sound like you may be better off managing your reservation yourself without a TA.  Then you could call RC at your leisure.  If you are changing a cruise and assuming refundable deposit, you could have your TA cancel it when she comes back and book a new cruise yourself.  You may have your deposit tied up for a few days but if you can manage that then that may be the best for you.
 

Hi @JasonL, welcome to the boards!
If your TA is on vacation, I don’t think you can really expect any kind of rapid response time. It’s not unreasonable to hope she’ll see it and be able to act quickly, but I would never expect it after getting the notice and disclaimer that email and phone will be checked “as much as possible”.
If she’s on a long flight with her family that day, or you emailed when she’s not in ready access to the internet, or she’s in some location with a big time zone difference that makes it impractical for her to follow up, you could be waiting a couple of days or even several. She could even be dealing with an unexpected emergency that puts doing anything work-related to the far back of her mind.
Does she have any listed secondary contacts in her out of office notice? I know my TA always lists at least one for any urgent matters like yours, but she’s part of a larger agency. If your TA is working solo and runs her own shop, you might just be out of luck until she can check for your message.

We decided on The Boatyard when we are in Barbados.  It looks like a boat tour to a shipwreck and snorkeling with turtles are included too.  Can't wait!!

Barbados has such perfect white powder sand beaches. I've only done The Boatyard, but we absolutely loved it. The beach is deep and the sand perfect. They have water toys to play on and a rope swing off the pier. Volleyball nets, music ect...  For a beach day we loved it.

I cruise in family suites often with 5 total guests. RCCL should really update their system to allow more than 4 guests in a booking. I don't know if I could bid on upgrades since a party of 5 has 2 separate bookings for the 1 cabin.