AshleyDillo

I've done a Canada/New England cruise and these ports are all super easy to navigate on your own as well as do third-party excursions so you don't have to stick with the ones that Royal Caribbean offers. In Boston we took Uber/Lyft to the Liberty Trail and walked a portion of it..visited Fenuli Hall and lots of the touristy places along the trail. We did a walking food tour in Portland. Rented a car in St. Johns and drove out to the sea caves and saw the reversing falls. Did a private tour in Bar Harbor that was fantastic..went to Acadia National Park, Cadillac Mountain, all around the area, over to a lobster shack on the water for lunch, lots of places that the locals enjoy and then ended up downtown where all the shopping is right at the port. In Halifax we also hired a private tour that took us to the Citadel, the gardens, the Titanic cemetary and lots of other stuff I'm forgetting (it was raining so we saw a lot through the van windows). It really depends on what interests you! You can look at the Royal tours to get an idea of what you may want to see and then decide if you want to try to DIY it and piece together something that is tailored to your interests.

The prices for passenger 1 and 2 in the triple room should be locked in at those prices even if you remove the 3rd person. Passengers 1 & 2 are always charged the same rate and then passengers 3 and on are charged a lesser rate. You can see this if you go and look at the pricing per guest:

Most hotels in Miami do not have free shuttles to the port and you will pay around $10-$30 a person just for the shuttle depending on where the hotel is. It's usually better to just Uber/Lyft at that point. We always find it more advantageous to park at the port over dealing with shuttles and a park & fly hotel. You can find a hotel a bit further out and park at the port and still come out ahead $$$ wise..and it's much more convenient to have your car there at the port when getting off of the ship, especially Terminal A in Miami. The Doubletree Biscayne Bay and Hilton Miami Downtown usually have stay & cruise rates..but you are looking at $300-$400 minimum plus the cost of the shuttle at that point. There are some cheaper hotel options in the Doral or Blue Lagoon area that you may want to look into if you really want a stay & cruise rate.

It's $20 per visit. You can swing by Playmakers and order at any time and then go to dinner elsewhere. You could even go to Chops at 5:15pm and then Giovannis at 9:15pm and have two dinners that evening if you wanted with the package. Food coma is definitely a thing though...

Still not available at Terminal A unfortunately.

You have to have a passport to get the Expedited Arrival. Just go through the regular line with your boyfriend. They will see your info is already there when you check-in. It maybe saves you 2 minutes to have Expedited Arrival. It basically means you are cleared to walk on the ship without doing anything else.

I will ditto what has been said already. I booked my Jan2022 villa suite in Nov2019. There's only one on Symphony so it makes it hard to catch unless you happen to snag it when they drop the cruise dates..or someone cancels it and you luck into it.

It's not a $500 daily spend but once your balance hits $500 they will turn off charging privileges until you pay the account down. It really is as simple as that. They will put a bill on your door about halfway during the cruise that usually shows what your balance is and you can monitor and check it on the TV and through the app on your phone.

The highlighted yellow just means those are numbers that would give them reason to exercise more caution when docking. There are tons of factors that go into the decision, so just because it's highlighted in yellow doesn't necessarily mean they're going to miss the port. The combo of the wave heights plus the wind can cause the waves to break high enough that they would wash over the dock. In that case it wouldn't be safe for them to have passengers using the dock at all even if the ship was able to safely tie up.

Knowing this is the process, you may want to consider downsizing your toiletries to fit within the carry-on standards so it won't be as much of an issue? Otherwise I have found it pretty easy to just repack if needed once I get to the airport. You will get information near the end of the cruise that will detail the process for you. You will be told to leave your suitcases outside of the cabin the night before departure, typically by 11pm at night. You will pick them up after you get off the ship and before you go through customs. It will be a big warehouse type area and you will look for the luggage tag number you were assigned and find your bags there. Typically the latest folks are off the ship is 9:30-9:45am. Really depends on when they start the process of letting people off.

The discount for D+ is that you can deduct the value of the 2 free days of internet from the price of the package. There is no discount off of purchasing by the day once you have used up the 2 free days.

They have build your own tacos..and a taco salad is basically the inside of a taco, so yes!

There are two rail options available: Brightline https://www.gobrightline.com/ Tri-Rail https://www.tri-rail.com/ The only issue is that neither will get you all the way to the port if that's your final destination. You would still need to Uber/Lyft from the train stations in Miami to the port. There have been a couple of posts about experiences:

Might as well get it changed in the system so you both will have the Diamond status and get double the benefits on your honeymoon!

They can make a guaranteed amount of money off of a charter, so it's usually worth it for them to do that over betting that a normal sailing will generate more onboard revenue than they could have gotten for the charter guarantee. I never book domestic airfare that far out, so the cancellation wouldn't have affected me too much. I know it happens and it's still disappointing to have plans change and need to come up with a whole new vacation. I've heard of charter cancellations coming with a much shorter notification window before sailing so at least this one wasn't absolutely last minute. I hope everyone can work things out and find something comparable to take its place.

Some of the charters may be different number of days from the original sailings (e.g. the charter is 3 days when the original sailing was 5 days) so they have to create new itineraries to fill in the other days that weren't chartered.

Not from the area but from Florida and close enough to make your area a long weekend getaway. I always make it a point to hit up Dirty Oar and Crydermans when I'm down there.

PS: While the BBQ is admirable for BBQ on a cruise ship, it's no Cryderman's so go into it with the right expectations! ?

Freedom NYE cruise also had the drawing still.

Well if you are driving in, it's not that bad. Getting to park at Terminal A is great, similar to ease of parking at Port Canaveral. It's the mess if you don't self-assist off the ship and get off with all of the masses..you're dealing with folks queuing for taxis and rideshares and personal pickup and it all bottlenecks and is a mess when you hit it at the wrong time. Driving and parking at the port will give you the ability to avoid all that mess. Having done all four Oasis class ships over the past year, Symphony is my #1 ranked followed by the revamped Oasis so I would have the same difficult decision! In my opinion Symphony still gets the edge with more pros: Symphony pros: ice show drones have a slight edge over the sand art guy, Hairspray over CATS, Flight over the other medley abomination on Oasis, Jamie's over Giovannis, Wonderland and Hooked, decor is a bit more modern with darker finishes Oasis pros: Aqua80s over Hiro, Portside BBQ, usually WAY cheaper pricing (but apparently not so in this case)

That is a good consideration. When it comes to shows I give the slight edge to Symphony. Theater shows (Hairspray and Flight) were better than the ones on Oasis. The ice show on Symphony it a little better because DRONES! But the Aqua80 aquatheater show on Oasis is much better than Hiro was IMO.

If price is truly the same for both, I would lean towards the one out of Port Everglades because for me it's much easier to deal with..flights are cheaper for me to FLL and hotels are cheaper and super near the port. Plus Terminal A in Miami made me mad the last time we disembarked because the traffic was ridiculous.

If you share the same address, you can call Crown & Anchor now and have her status applied to you as you are a significant other/domestic partner.

There are several trails out at Mendenhall but the most difficult ones are still gravel. It was raining when we went. I bought a pair of $30 waterproof hiking sneakers from Bass Pro Shop similar to what @Matt posted and they kept my feet dry and were comfortable enough for walking around. As long as you have a spare pair of shoes, I wouldn't see why regular sneakers wouldn't work. But you definitely want the backup pair in case they get soaked because wet shoes take forever to dry!

Those are the ones that end in 229 or 629. If you are a light sleeper and not an early riser, there is quite a bit of noise in those rooms from the crew area which is next to these rooms. I believe it's a place where they bring up and stage the morning room service orders.