SpeedNoodles

I think @michelle has told me she can place a courtsey hold for 5 days, if I'm remembering correctly. (She's so patient with dumb me, lol).

Which ship? I know Ovation already has a nightlight built into the bathroom lights. It was great.

Life is short. Book the cruise. 🙂

I have a strong feeling I'll want to book another group cruise, but damn if most of them aren't over holidays (I can't get PTO over holidays, booooo).

Also why I never, ever, use debit cards for traveling.

It doesn't include any Starbuck's stand-alone venue - but it will cover specialty coffees (and regular coffees) at Cafe Promenade, 270 Cafe, etc (including the super-charged expressos and those with alcohol). I think my husband may have gotten as much or more value out of the specialty coffees than he did the alcohol. We got to know the barista in the 270 Cafe pretty darned well.

I love this thread ... maybe more than I should, lol.

We thought that it was very good on Ovation (Sorrento's).

This happens most Saturday nights. I work overnights, and visit the site nearly every night and I just know that I won't be able to get on if it's a Saturday night/Sunday morning.

It varies, just keep checking your cruise planner.

We considered it on Ovation, but then remembered that if there's a way for my husband to dislocate a shoulder, he'll find it, and it was just wayyyyyy too risky for us! Everyone else looked like they were having an absolute blast, though.

I've been tracking promotions (daily) on Royal for 6 months now. There is no time when the 2nd passenger isn't 50% off. This is just the base fare. If it's more than that (60%, for instance), or " plus $150 instant savings", or anything else, then it's an actual "sale". I wouldn't wait - prices just climb. If it does go down, you can reprice it through Royal, or better yet, your travel agent can do it for you.

I"ve heard Matt suggest on podcasts to book for 2 people (any person for the 2nd person) and when the 2nd person doesn't show up they'll just refund the port fee and taxes on the 2nd person who doesn't show.

Check your cruise planner frequently, especially with shore excursions. I've often found weird deals even when there's no actual advertised "sale" going on (for instance, we got our Oasis Lagoon Cabana for $309 one day - no sale, it was higher the day before and has never dipped down to that point again - now it's $800). Same with one of our Alaska excursions - got a price that wasn't during a sale and that I never saw go that low again.

On Ovation 2 weeks ago we had MTD. The first night we were given a fabulous table next to a window (which was so fabulous while cruising through the Juan de Fuca Straight), but we were really unhappy with our wait staff. The next night we had a table far from a window, but with a fabulous wait team. We spoke with the Maitre de after dinner the 2nd night and requested the same table with the same wait staff for the rest of the sailing and they were able to accommodate us - so it never hurts to ask. We were very pleased.